Day 33-37

On Day 33 the crew came back to work on getting the rest of Brad’s retaining wall out before setting up forms for the next two concrete pours. We didn’t get as much rain as was predicted, so the crew worked all day. At the end of the day the forms for the driveway were in and a bunch of dirt was removed from where the retaining wall had been.

The dirt pile irritated me quite a bit. It’s the first time the look of the job site has bothered me. I don’t know if it was because of the memory of our whale-sized pile of dirt in the backyard from the time Brad built the retaining wall or if it was because I felt they weren’t getting rid of things properly. I think it was the later. What they did didn’t make sense. The giant dumpster (that was only supposed to be in the alley for a week to ten days) was completely full and they then put a pile of dirt as tall as the dumpster in front of it. Therefore the dumpster couldn’t be moved until the dirt was removed—and that dumpster needs to be removed! I was all set to apologize to my neighbors the next day, but the next morning the first thing the crew did was move the dirt pile.

Once the dirt pile was moved the crew then put the forms down for the patio—although that’s not quite the right word. My Uncle Bill had a good word for it—probably something French, but since I’m from rural Iowa I think of it as a lean-to.

At 11:00 A.M. the cement truck arrived and the driveway was poured. This was the day (Day 34) Austin was to get the most rain from Hurricane Dolly. It was overcast most of the morning, but didn’t really look like rain. But of course as soon as the driveway was poured it started raining. The crew put up big, black tarps over the driveway and then after the patio was poured they covered that with a tarp. They ended their day around 2:00.

Day 35 was spent clearing more dirt and making way for the new section of retaining wall. They also spread a lot of dirt around in our yard. I haven’t decided if I’m irritated about that yet. It all depends on how it works out. Right now it looks as though they spread it so water will run away from the garage, so I’m pleased about that, but I don’t want the dirt to be so high it interferes with the walkway we’ll put in later.

At the end of Day 35 Brad and I went out to see our new slabs. Since we had rain the day before and the slabs were covered we hadn’t seen them yet. Right off we found something that was NOT good. The crew cut the Cat 5 cable. They also poured concrete over it, so now when they replace the cable (which they WILL) they can’t thread it through a casing. It will have to go somewhere else. And who knows if there were more cuts under the concrete. I sent our contractor an e-mail with photos of the problem and let him know I rely on that cable to do my job and it needed to be fixed. I also let him know the stinky, overfilled dumpster needs to go this next week.

I must say I was not happy about the concrete driveway. I had wanted gravel—which I thought was what we’d have. However, the day Brad and I played tag with the awful plumber Brad and our contractor decided on the concrete driveway. I guess I’ll have to learn to live with it, but I like the natural look of gravel. Perhaps I’ll appreciate it next winter when we get a heavy rain and I’m not walking through puddles.

Day 36 and 37 fell on the weekend, so I have nothing to report. I chose to include the weekends in my day count since we’re living through the mess on weekends. Also, the project was kicked off on a Saturday.

I leave you with a photo of the patio slab and an overall view of the project.